football

[Moved to Diaries to keep folks informed]

[Update 11/13: Todd Howard is confirmed]

[Update 11/7: Talked to some former players, who are going to try to come. A lot of guys coach so if the season's over (ie they lose in the playofffs) they'll make it.]

Q: What's the exact opposite of the East Lansing experience?

A: The Evanston experience.

Northwestern fans are eminently likeable, not that you really need to be alone on a purple sea since half the seats in Ryan are going to be filled with people in maize:

The above is the t-shirt that people going on the Northwestern trip with Sports Power Weekends will receive, along with a game ticket, hotel room for two nights, transportation, gift cards, and an MGoStore discount. For Friday night's entertainment, Jared of SPW has engaged the services of…US GUYS.

There's still some spots left on the SPW trip and I highly recommend you jump on that if you're considering going to the NW game—it gets down to just $350/person if you can get three of your friends to come along.

Since we'll be there anyway we'd like to also invite any readers from Chicago to come join us at:

Which is a huge (as in we get lots of space) Michigan bar. Details-like things:

When: Friday, November 15, from 6-9PM CST.

Where: Moe's Cantina River North 155 W. Kinzie St., Chicago, IL 60654, one block north of the Chicago River between LaSalle and N Wells. M: Merchandise Mart.

What: Q&A Session with Brian, and talking with people who don't need it explained that we had a true freshman guard starting against Max Bullough, i.e. other MGoBlog readers.

RSVP below, or show up.

I used the UFR's to break down Michigan's average yards per play. I made a couple of different tables to help try and seperate the data. I didn't count penalties, and for pass plays I included sacks and scrambles.

Here are the tables:

- YPP from ace/I and in shotgun/pistol are very similar

- We run the ball much better from shotgun/pistol

- Power is one of our better run plays

- 2 of our worst run plays, are our most commonly called run plays

The Detroit News is reporting that Devin Gardner and a lot of other players are getting hate mail and tweets:

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131113/SPORTS0201/311130089/Devin-Gardner-receiving-lot-hate-mail-tweets-from-passionate-Michigan-fans?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

This shouldn't have to be said -- folks, if you find yourself seriously tempted to send an angry message to a player, don't. It won't help them and it won't make you feel any better either. Enjoy the wins, let go of the losses.

If being a fan makes you miserable, you're allowed to just not be a fan for a while. Go ahead, leave the party. Just be discrete about it. If you can avoid making an idiot of yourself on the way out, we'll almost certainly let you back in when the team starts winning again.

This morning on ESPN radio's Mike and Mike show they were talking to Jeff Saturday, former center from the Colts.  The topic was the obviously injured Peyton Manning and what Saturday would do to keep him healthy since he is the only reason the Broncos are a super bowl contender.  As Saturday spoke, I immediately thought of our situation with Devin Gardner - his health, his unproven back-up, and the fourteen recent sacks.  

Saturday's first comment was that he would absolutely not max-protect.  In his opinion that causes more "trash" around the QB because every TE and RB that stays in to block brings a defender who will read their tendencies and add another blitzing body to the mess around your QB.  He said he would spread the field, spread the D, and thus give the QB plenty of options to get rid of the ball faster.  

Obviously Denver's OL is far more competent than whatever we're throwing out there, but this is a strategy I'd like to see us use more.  I'm guessing you won't see any covered WR in Denver's next game.  

The other comment he said was that if he were the OL coach he would tell the guys that if they got beat by their man to hold, grab, or tackle the guy so he didn't hit Manning.  He said they'd rather see a penalty or bad play than get their QB hurt.  That made me realize that for all the lousy protection lately, we haven't had hardly any penalties for holding.  Why not tell the guys to push the limits a little more until the refs call it?  

Below I listed the road records of three coaches in their first three years at a major BCS school. Can you guess who they are and what team’s they represent, or represented? If so you will not win a prize, but you may gain some obvious insight. My argument for Michigan has been about the lack of o-line recruiting under the previous regime (the obvious). Michigan had a one year gap where the upperclassmen on the interior line graduated and left us  with redshirt freshman and sophomores competing for jobs who have little to no game experience. Two out of the three coaches listed had upper class experience on the interior of their lines from one year to the next (experience, maturity, not being thrown into the fire to learn). While one coach (can you guess him)? has a huge drop off and has been forced to (throw players into the fire) .

(COACH 1)

O-LINE FIRST THREE YEARS

1. LT (JR) LG (SR) C (SR) RG (JR) RT (JR) ROAD RECORD: 2-2

1. LT (SR) LG (SR) C (SR) RG (SR) RT (JR) ROAD RECORD: 1-6

1. LT (SR) LG (JR) C (JR) LG (R-FR) LT (SR) ROAD RECORD: 2-3

3 YEAR OVERALL ROAD RECORD: 5-11

(COACH 2)

O-LINE FIRST 3 YEARS

1. JR. SR. SR. SR. JR. ROAD RECORD: 2-3

1. JR. SR. JR. SR. JR. ROAD RECORD: 1-4

1. SO. SO. JR. JR. SO. ROAD RECORD: 3-2

3 YEAR OVERALL ROAD RECORD: 6-9

(COACH 3)

O-LINE FIRST THREE YEARS.

1. SO. JR. SR. JR. SR. ROAD RECORD: 3-2

1. JR. SR. SR. SR. JR.  ROAD RECORD: 2-3

1. R-SR. FR. SO. R-FR. SR. ROAD RECORD: 1-2

3 YEAR OVERALL ROAD RECORD: 6-7

Michigan didn’t try to implement Manball in any high variety until last year. The staff came in and decided to adapt in an effort to not only win, but please the fan base and to limit attrition. We needed to keep Denard if we were going to keep the roster from fully running in a different direction. This staff unlike the previous staff adapted. Now we are seeing growing pains of a very youthful inexperienced line, mixed in with a lot more manball, west coast offense. This has been the cause of a lot of issues (Per Borges). The staff waited until year three to implement their system fully and we are finally feeling the effects of the change. 2011 was destined to be a good year because it was Rich Rods most experienced team. The X factor for me has and will always be the depth of our offensive line. If this staff is going to succeed the way they vow to succeed then the offensive line must gain experience and go through the motions.

Let the discussion begin. I will have more to add to this later this week. I have far more to add to this. I will try to make this a diary by end of week.

Where do you have Da'shawn Hand committing to tomorrow, and why?

Popular Predictions:

Mike Farrel

Prediction: Michigan

TomVH

Prediction: Michigan

Jeremy Birmingham

Prediction: Michigan

Jamie Oakes (Virginia Recruiting Insider)

Prediction: Michigan

Tim Sullivan

Prediction: Michigan

JC Shurburtt

Prediction: Michigan